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# 62 • JUNE 12 , 2015
art of carving. Here are two interesting statues representing
a Madonna del Rosario (XVII
century) by the sculptor Carmine Latessa, and a Sant’Antonio
Abate by Nicola Giovannitti
(1727). This is a typical country church, expanded in length
throughout the present rectory during the first half of the
nineteenth century, while the
façade dates back to the 1718.
The vault of the nave and the
two side aisles were painted
by Ciriaco and Stanislao Brunetti.
Coming back to the village you
get to the Ducal Palace; designed as a fortified castle in the
fourteenth century, it became
an aristocratic mansion (XVIII
century) and today, unfortunately, is privately owned.
Magnificent stone portals, such
as the Doge´s Palace and Casa
Giuliani, lead us to remember
other fine artists from Oratino:
the stonemason Domenico
Grandilla, the sculptor Silverio
Giovannitti, the gilders Giuseppe Petti, Agostino Brunetti
and Modesto Pallante, as well
as the painters Franco Brunetti,
expression of the late Mannerist culture, and Niccolò Falocco, with his sanguine paintings
full of chiaroscuro effects, who
is indicated as a pupil of Solimena that is the greatest exponent of early eighteenth-century Neapolitan painting.
Going on via Piedicastello, or
walking along Piazza Giordano
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on a summer night, or even looking out to the viewpoint to
admire the Biferno valley (Oratino is a two-faced village), you
can catch something mysterious about this place. As if the
excellent local worked stone,
engraved and lost in the vicissitudes of the centuries, such as
the medieval tower that stands
alone and broken on a precipice, represented the eternal
repetition of transhumance.